Monday, May 8, 2006

Man, that sucked. What an unbelievably frustrating game to watch. It reminded me of all those times I sat in front of this very TV and felt my heart angrily thump impotent rage through my veins as the fucking Dallas Stars just danced around us like pylons and always knew exactly where to make the pass. Remember that? And the worst part was their scoring chances were never any goddamned good — they'd just beat us to the rebounds and hack away until something trickled in. And all you could do was sit there and wonder why the sweet hell the Oilers looked so much worse than you knew they were.

Why can't we control the play for more than fifteen seconds at a time? Why are we always one step behind every time we dump the puck in? Why do we have to play like such losers? All this races through your mind as the Oilers dump it, lose it, fight for it, carry it out, dump it, lose it, ad nauseum until the clock winds down from eleven minutes left to seven to four to two to one and we lose. Again.

It was different when it was the Dallas Stars. They were inside our heads; we just couldn't beat them; the gods were against us. But what of the San Jose Sharks? They're not the 2000-2003 Dallas Stars. They're far from a complete team. They have weaknesses we seem to be aware of, and they're really not all that imposing or frightening. And yet, we lose so handily. Are they outplaying us? Not really. But the Oilers are being seriously outgutted and outworked. There's only one team out there that really wants the win, and sadly, it sure isn't us.

Why is it that the only Ethan Moreau seems to have any clue what Oilers hockey is supposed to look like? All you have to do is want the puck and take the body. That's it. Play like you care. At least if they did that, they'd deserve some of my pity. All I want is some fucking guts.

Tonight was pathetic. We looked slow, bewildered and unfocused, and it's going to take a major turnaround on Wednesday to convince me that that moment when we were two men up against a team with only one stick and still couldn't put the puck in the net was not the turning point in this series.

11
comments:

Anonymous
said...

Just a thought: perhaps the Sharks are actually a pretty darned good team? I know it's a difficult concept to accept for an opponent, especially one trying to work up a good hate against a playoff antagonist, but it seems to me that they deserve more respect than you (or the Oilers) are giving them.

I didn't say the Sharks were a bad team, and obviously, if I say they're outworking and outgutting us, I think they're playing really well. But thanks for trying to help me grasp the concept regardless, anonymous.

I blame the schedule. Initially I thought that both teams had the same disadvantage so I didn't think anything of it.

But then I saw how game 2 was a goddamn clone of game 1, and you realize it makes sense. No day off between games to regroup, no day off to learn from your mistakes. And the result? San Jose plays the exact same game, Edmonton plays the exact same game, and the score is exactly the same. I just hope we're not in too much of a hole to rebound at home.

You're welcome, Chris!. However, I think you may have missed my point.

Your description (to me, at least) conjured up an image of an unskilled but hardworking team winning on sheer guts. When the best thing you can think of to say about the Sharks is that they outworked the Oilers, you're not taking them seriously enough.

These Sharks are anything but unskilled.

I think most of the rest of the league dismissed them as being a bunch of softies. They (and Anaheim as well) are proving that they can play tough when they have to.

If the Oil think they are simply being outworked and that all they have to do to even it is to work harder, they will be out in 4 or 5. They need to play to their own strengths rather than trying to play on what they believe to be the Sharks' weaknesses. If they can do that, they might have a chance.

Anonymous guy, a man who works in comments boxes of obscure blogs the way an artist may work in clays and oils, feverishly types a delicious parting shot that all but cements his reputation as a genius:

"p.s. Sometimes you don't lose. Sometimes the other team wins."

"Bam!" he thinks to himself, presumably blowing the smoke off of a gun-shaped hand.

Any question of "whether San Jose gets enough respect for being a good team" can be shouted down for one night, thanks to anonymous' glowing, trolling wit.

The Oil need to get Harvey in the lineup. Yes, he is a left winger, but he shoots right and should be able to play on the right side. Throw him on the first line like they attempted to do with big George last nite. He may not be the only thing they need to change, but it is one thing. The Sharts did play okay, but they were beatable. The Oilers just let the Sharts get in their head.

Although this is more of a knock on the way the rest of the Oilers have played than a compliment to Big Georges, I would say that he had 2 of the Oilers' 3 best scoring chances last night... (out of a total of what, maybe 5?)